Biotage AB (publ) Interim report January – September 2022

July – September

• Net sales amounted to SEK 401 (305) million, an increase of 31.2 percent and an organic* increase of 12.2 percent.

• Operating profit amounted to SEK 97 (68) million and adjusted* to SEK 102 (71) million.

• The operating margin was 24.2 percent (22.3) and adjusted to 25.5 percent (23.1).

• EBITA* amounted to SEK 104 (71) million, and adjusted to SEK 110 (73) million.

• The EBITA margin* amounted to 26.0 percent (23.1) and adjusted to 27.3 percent (23.9).

• Profit after tax amounted to SEK 65 (53) million.

• Earnings per share were SEK 0.99 (0.81) before and SEK 0.98 (0.81) after dilution.

• Cash flow from operating activities increased to SEK 97 (89) million.

• Net cash* as of September 30 was SEK 135 (61) million.

January – September

• Net sales amounted to SEK 1,182 (890) million, an increase of 32.7 percent and an organic* increase of 16.0 percent.

• Operating profit amounted to SEK 286 (210) million and adjusted* to SEK 301 (213) million.

• The operating margin was 24.2 percent (23.6) and adjusted to 25.5 percent (23.9).

• EBITA* amounted to SEK 307 (217) million, and adjusted to SEK 323 (220) million.

• The EBITA margin* amounted to 26.0 percent (24.4) and adjusted to 27.3 percent (24.7).

• Profit after tax amounted to SEK 194 (159) million.

• Earnings per share were SEK 2.94 (2.44) before and SEK 2.93 (2.44) after dilution.

• Cash flow from operating activities decreased to SEK 242 (249) million.

• On March 14, the Board decided on new financial goals: 12 percent organic growth and a 25 percent EBITA margin, both averaging over three years.

• A dividend of SEK 1.55 per share was paid for a total amount of SEK 102 million in May.

Message from the CEO
Biotage reached another historic milestone when our sales exceeded SEK 400 million for the first time in a single quarter. We continued to grow faster than the market and broke new sales records for the sixth consecutive quarter. And we did it with continued good margins.

For the third quarter of the year, we achieved a new record for net sales of SEK 401 m (305). The fact that we managed to exceed SEK 400 million for a single quarter is due to the combination of good performance throughout the Group and the tailwinds of currency effects. We continued to show good cost discipline, with an adjusted EBITA margin of 27.3% (23.9%) for the quarter, despite a turbulent environment and ongoing challenges in the supply chain.

One important factor to why we are growing faster than the market is that we conduct our business in a customer-focused and proactive manner. This gives us the conditions to meet the rapid changes that our customers and we ourselves must constantly deal with. Risk management is constantly high on our agenda. We are looking at both how we can tackle the acute impact of events in the world around us and the long-term consequences they can have. The prevailing energy crisis and inflationary pressure are affecting our current costs and continue to preasen operational challenges. We work in a disciplined, smart and methodical way with everything we have control over in order to continue to meet our customers’ needs. So far, we have been able to manage supply chain challenges well, thanks to a strong team and a solid effort. However, our ability to meet customers’ needs despite disruptions in the supply chain has a direct impact on both costs and increased tied-up capital.

All three of our customer focus areas show strong growth compared to the same period last year: White Tech with customers in research, development and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and vaccines, Red Tech with a focus on diagnostic companies and clinical, forensic and doping laboratories, and Blue & Green Tech with a focus on environmental, water and food laboratories. Overall, our organic growth in the third quarter of the year was 12.2%. We grew double digits for the eighth consecutive quarter, and organic growth for the entire period from January to September was 16.0%.

Broken down by geographical markets, I am pleased to report that Americas continued its fantastic development with a new record quarter and sales growth of 40% compared with the third quarter of 2021 (13.7% organic growth). China also had a very strong quarter, with double-digit growth in both EMEA and South Korea.

To better serve the ASEAN region, Biotage has now established a new office in Singapore. This follows our strategy of being as close to our customers as possible, both to provide them with better service and support and to gain local insights that help us develop our products and solutions in the right way.

If we look at our various product areas, Biologics & Advanced Therapeutics stood out with sales growth of 70.7% (34.9% organic growth) driven by sales in the Americas of our Biotage®PhyPrep automated plasmid purification system. Recently, we invested in expansion in this area by expanding our operations in San Jose, California. We are now continuing to focus on further strengthening our position in this attractive niche with the future in mind. Strong growth was also noted for Analytical Testing, with 49.3% (29.6% organic growth). Sales success of, among other things, our recently launched Biotage®Extrahera HV contributed to the good development. Water & Environmental Testing also grew during the quarter by 32.2 percent (12.2% organic growth).

Large-scale vaccine production that was rapidly expanded to meet new needs as a result of the COVID-19 mass vaccinations brought Biotage new business opportunities and strong growth in the Scale Up product area. As the pandemic subsides and there are fewer investments in vaccinations, Biotage’s sales in this particular application of our Scale Up products also decline. The fact that Biotage is still able to deliver another record-breaking quarter shows the strength of our business model. Our business rests on several legs and we are committed to creating new revenue streams through a constant search for new niches where we can help streamline our customers’ workflows.

Our solutions also contribute to reducing customers’ use of solvents and thereby to production that takes greater care of the environment. At our own manufacturing unit in Cardiff, Wales, we continue to optimize production processes in order to further reduce the amount of solvent use. We are accelerating efforts to establish relevant data on our environmental and climate impacts across the Group. In this way, we can establish a starting point for future improvements and obtain better data for our sustainability reporting.

To summarize, we have had a formidable journey so far this year, despite a turbulent world, an inflation crisis and supply chain pressures. We continued to defend our gross margin and also showed strong cash flow in the third quarter of the year. It is difficult to predict the future in this rapidly changing world, but I can still confirm that Biotage has a healthy balance sheet and is well equipped for continued strategic investments in attractive niches with recurring sales.

Uppsala, November 2, 2022

Tomas Blomquist
President and CEO